Attendance

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Haven't seen a thread for this semester yet...

I made this because our class's attendance this semester has been described as "abysmal" by several of our professors. I blame that partly on lecture capture (recorded lecture + slides that run through the computer), but also partly on one professor that pulls all exam questions from the assigned readings instead of lecture.

We had a guest lecturer a few weeks ago and attendance was at ~50 out of 88 students. The IOR was livid. Just last week each professor has started taking attendance via iclickers in every class. Not sure what they'll do with the data but it hasn't affected attendance at all.

Curious how all of your classes are doing so far with this.

 

[Pharmacopia]

Professors have ways to punish those that don't show up, like putting up new slides, underlying notes instead of saying them so no one can record, or straight out ban recordings.


My last year of didactic studying (p2), attendance for my class was down to about 35 percent, or thats what it seems like.

I think you will realize that with the exception of oncology and maybe ID, you can literally learn on your own.

 

[schamj01]

Our biochemistry class is supposed to have 167 students in it. Last Friday, I counted and there were 50 students in lecture. The sad thing is, I think the number may continue to decrease the closer we get to finals. While that makes absolutely no logical sense to me, it seems to be the trend.


For the record, I've only skipped 2 classes the whole semester.

 

[rx2010]

I will admit that I during my P3 year of school, I rarely attended class. I only went to school to take my exams. I had a friend record the lectures for me and since our notes were all ppt slides posted online, I just studied and took notes on my own at home. I study better when I'm alone listening to the lectures and typing the notes, rather than when I'm in class. I tend to lose focus and not pay attention in class, so there was no point in me attending class.

It turned out my GPA was highest during my P3 year compared to P1 and P2, when I actually did attend class.

 

[Dr Wario]

It seems to me that this is simply the product of an educational system that will convert from a classroom to an online based format. I think some schools may be afraid of this because they know that once the better schools adopt this format and can essentially infinitely expand their enrollment, the high cost diploma mills will be out of business. Let's face it, online higher education (and the subsequent lowering of costs) will probably be the only thing that gets us out of the student loan crisis as all the government will do will be to make it worse.

For now though, showing up to class is a factor in ingraining professionalism to the future pharmacists as that, even more so than the knowledge, is what separates them from the technicians who can never seem to be reliable.

 

[joetrisman]

As therapeutics/med chem/and the like have drawn on into a second quarter, our attendance has become quite sad. I hear the kids complain a lot about the hand slap emails/lectures that we receive as a class for continued loss attendance numbers. They often say that it should be their decision. While I somewhat agree with this, I also think that if they aren't learning enough and frustrate enough preceptors out on rotation, we could lose rotation spots because they were too lazy to come to class and listen.

 

[type b pharmD]

Havent been to class since P1 year. I usually only attend for exams. From rumors I hear, attendance has dropped from about 80% of students on a typical day (p1) to about 15-20% of students, although most people still attend the quizzes.

Lecture is a huge waste of time. My grades went up dramatically once I started self studying the material.

If you're a good reader and memorizer, you can pretty much learn the entire pharmacy school didactic curriculum from dipiro

 

[rxlea]

Miss certain classes and you're screwed here. Can't miss case studies or cases in therapeutics especially. Too much discussion and group work to miss most classes. Attendance is high for most. There are certain students that never come but from what I hear, they are C ish students.

No dress code. Mandatory attendance for case studies only unless you have meetings or OSCE (p1). Otherwise, do what you want.

 

[Pharmizzle]

. I study better when I'm alone listening to the lectures and typing the notes, rather than when I'm in class. I tend to lose focus and not pay attention in class, so there was no point in me attending class.

This. I still go to class the majority of the time but I feel like I'm wasting hours out of my day. I'm a read/write learner, and I remember practically nothing auditory, so listening to lecturers is pretty much the worst way for me to try to learn anything, unless I'm listening to a recorded lecture and pausing it to write things down. Oh well, though. I imagine that within our lifetimes we're going to see a drastic reduction in brick-and-mortar schools in favor of online education and I for one think that will be a good thing.

 

[pharm B]

I wish our lectures were useful enough to just study at home, but honestly there's such a language barrier sometimes between us and a few of the PhD's on faculty that it becomes impossible to figure out what we should actually take away from the presentation.

There is a difference between a good lecturer and a terribly bad one, and the bad ones should not be teaching. But they are, and sometimes attendance is mandatory or pseudo-mandatory via quiz points from Turning Point questions, so here we sit.

Language barrier example: Saw a set of notes once that said "Ingestion of particles of the particles of the particle by the cells"

 

[delano2000]

I usually only go to classes on certain days. If I have a quiz/test or some kinda case studies, I'll be there. Attendance is mandatory for all discussion/labs, but I only have those 3 days out of the week. I'm a procrastinator so that might not be a good thing, but I try to stay on top of things as much as possible. Most of our powerpoint presentations are pretty thorough or the professor will upload lecture recordings and then I'd take notes at home.

 

[schamj01]

What I don't like to admit is if I didn't go to class, I probably wouldn't have the discipline to watch them on my own. When I was in undergrad, I took an online Pharmaceutics class (a nursing class to boot) and never listened to a single lecture.

The other thing I would miss about lecture is the ability to ask questions. I appreciate the interaction I guess.

 

[PharmEcon]

The future of higher education is really interesting because of the emergence of live/recorded lectures. I know some schools like Stanford are already offering courses where thousands of people can sign up and just take it from their homes. It should hopefully increase the spread of ideas and improve education while putting some much-needed downward pressure on education costs.

There will of course be restraint, especially at professional programs, and in some instances it is most definitely justified (esp in professional school where showing up might be part of the training to prepare you for a job), but it is interesting nonetheless.

 

[30Percent]

All our lectures are recorded and are in ppt form. After a few weeks you usually can figure out which professors you can skip.

 

[confettiflyer]

I will admit that I during my P3 year of school, I rarely attended class. I only went to school to take my exams. I had a friend record the lectures for me and since our notes were all ppt slides posted online, I just studied and took notes on my own at home. I study better when I'm alone listening to the lectures and typing the notes, rather than when I'm in class. I tend to lose focus and not pay attention in class, so there was no point in me attending class.

It turned out my GPA was highest during my P3 year compared to P1 and P2, when I actually did attend class.

This was my experience as well. I had a study group and we all taught each other with notes/guides, those were my best academic years of school.

We'd get similar "hand slap" emails about attendance, but I was really more concerned about my doing well so that didn't really do much in terms of motivation...so unless a professor changed the syllabus to suddenly include attendance, it wasn't going to happen.

 

[jewel2]

in the same boat with u as in losing focus during class. i daydream when people including the professor think i'm paying attention xD but i'm never too brave like u to try skipping classes

 

[Pharmacopia]

study smarter not harder 😀

 

[jewel2]

I will admit that I during my P3 year of school, I rarely attended class. I only went to school to take my exams. I had a friend record the lectures for me and since our notes were all ppt slides posted online, I just studied and took notes on my own at home. I study better when I'm alone listening to the lectures and typing the notes, rather than when I'm in class. I tend to lose focus and not pay attention in class, so there was no point in me attending class.

It turned out my GPA was highest during my P3 year compared to P1 and P2, when I actually did attend class.

in the same boat with u as in losing focus during class. i daydream when people including the professor think i'm paying attention xD but i'm never too brave like u to try skipping classes

 

[lorain]

i guess school can implement a attendance policy

i never went to class if it wasnt necessary....i realized i learned the material better studying at home/library then @ sitting in a lecture hall...so why waste time in said lecture hall?

 

[rxlea]

Am I the only weirdo that actually likes going to school and lectures?

 

[joetrisman]

Am I the only weirdo that actually likes going to school and lectures?

Depends on the topic. I've been attending ID lectures at the hospital downtown, am super excited about ID stuff next quarter in therapeutics, and will be spending all of xmas break making note cards. However, we had ACS this quarter, and I'd rather jump off a bridge than sit through a lecture about that stuff.

 

[confettiflyer]

Am I the only weirdo that actually likes going to school and lectures?

I'd go to lectures so I could hang out with friends at lunch.

 

[Pharmizzle]

Am I the only weirdo that actually likes going to school and lectures?

It's not that I *dislike* going to class, but when professors talk so quickly that I can't take good notes without missing half of what they're saying, and I know I'm going to have to listen to a recording later to get it all anyway, well... honestly, I just end up sitting there thinking about sex after about 10 minutes of lecture anyway.

 

[Smiles425]

It's not that I *dislike* going to class, but when professors talk so quickly that I can't take good notes without missing half of what they're saying, and I know I'm going to have to listen to a recording later to get it all anyway, well... honestly, I just end up sitting there thinking about sex after about 10 minutes of lecture anyway.

This. Minus the sex part. Honestly I don't know what I would do if the lectures weren't recorded. I love the fact that I can pause the lecture, look up what (s)he's talking about for clarification, rewind for reiteration and resume. People say, "Well at least if you attend class you get something out of it". This is true in certain classes for some people, but in other more difficult classes, the 5% of lecture that I retain means nothing without understanding full context. I rewatch every lecture for a particular class because of this, regardless of whether I was present or not.

In short, people who don't attend class all the time are not neccessarily slackers. We just learn in a different way 🙂

 

[BenJammin]

Highest grade I ever made in a class was a daily 8:00 am class that had exam questions coming straight from powerpoint slides that the professor posted online; consequently, I only showed up for exams. What's the purpose of coming to class in those cases?

 

[confettiflyer]

granted not showing up isn't new.... my best record of non-attendance was physics in college. I went to the 1st lecture so I wouldn't get dropped from the course, mid-term, then final. No recorded lectures or notes available, I just studied the book.

 

[pharm B]

Our school makes attendance pseudo-mandatory, and it's pretty annoying. Seems like there's a graded evolution every day of the week. If I could stay home and just watch the lectures, I would. Unfortunately, we also have professors who WON'T record their lectures. Some professors give lectures that I appreciate, and they respond well in Q&A, but others give awful lectures, and I just wait for a review at the end.

 

[joetrisman]

granted not showing up isn't new.... my best record of non-attendance was physics in college. I went to the 1st lecture so I wouldn't get dropped from the course, mid-term, then final. No recorded lectures or notes available, I just studied the book.

I did this in world history II in undergrad, didn't even crack a book, and pulled a B.


In other news, I'm skipping class today. We have a therapeutics exam tomorrow and the only class I have today is therapeutics with info that isn't on tomorrow's exam. Only second time I've skipped class since starting pharm school. I feel mischievous 😛

 

[confettiflyer]

I did this in world history II in undergrad, didn't even crack a book, and pulled a B.


In other news, I'm skipping class today. We have a therapeutics exam tomorrow and the only class I have today is therapeutics with info that isn't on tomorrow's exam. Only second time I've skipped class since starting pharm school. I feel mischievous 😛

 

[Ackj]

We had 30 students in class the other day, since it was last class of the day, right after lunch, and therapeutics was 8AM next morning. After a few times of the professor asking a question and getting silence, they threw out "...Bueller?"

 

[rxlea]

None of our lectures are recorded.

 

[rx2010]

Why don't y'all just buy your own digital recorder and have a friend or classmate that actually attends class record it for you? That's what I did, and the files transfer to your computer via USB. I would either listen to it on my computer or iPod.